Jones frustrated by mistake after ‘superb’ first half display against Walsall

Mike Simmonds

Hatters boss Nathan Jones was left a touch frustrated that his side’s first half display against Walsall on Saturday hadn’t led to Town finishing pre-season on a winning note.

Luton had dominated the opening period in terms of possession against their League One opponents, but once visiting striker Simeon Jackson opened the scoring moments into the second period, Town struggled to really get going once more.

“We’re disappointed, but it’s a learning curve for us, we’re now injury free and in decent form.”

Nathan Jones

Jones said: “I felt we were superb first half against a League One side as we wanted to test ourselves this pre-season and we have.

“We came out second half and it took all of a minute to take the sting out of the game, an error, which is avoidable has cost us the game.

“We didn’t react as I would have like after the goal, which is the disappointing thing really, to lose the game, or the error’s a disappointment, but it’s how we react after that.

“But apart from that, it’s a really good work out, fitness wise we’ve come through it, come through it injury free and in terms of our first half performance, I thought we were excellent and that’s what I’ll be taking out of it.”

The boss was slightly frustrated with his side’s lack of goal threat in the second period as he continued: “We wanted to start well and wanted to start fast and it wasn’t a good goal to give away, that was disappointing.

“Then because it took the sting out of the game, our press wasn’t intense, we didn’t move it as quickly as we should have and they were a little bit more intent to sit in and just defend it.

“They came to win the game, treated it as a proper game and that’s what we knew we’d get from Walsall.

“So we’re disappointed, but it’s a learning curve for us, we’re now injury free and in decent form.

Jones doesn’t anticipate it being a major issue during the season though, despite opposing team’s potentially adopting similar defensive tactics at Kenilworth Road.

He added: “They might, some might come with ambition too, you don’t really know, but we have to learn to break that down.

“Hopefully we’ll gain a reputation that deserves that but I think we have enough firepower, enough in our locker, that we are able to unlock defences, although we have to be ready for every eventuality.”